HOW TO BE Unpopular This Weekend, #1: Point out that, for a start, it’s not a Jubilee. A proper Jubilee, slaves are freed, prisoners released, and debts are forgiven (and there’s an idea, isn’t it, as we hover on the edge? Oh look: flying pigs.)

Nor – #2 – is it really a Diamond Jubilee, which should mark a monarch’s 75 years on the throne. We celebrate it after a mere 60 years’ rule – getting up, feeding one’s dogs, doing one’s hair and toddling out to ask people if they have come a long way – because everyone got a bit fed up with Queen Victoria going into monumental mourning after Albert died, so brought the Diamond Jubilee forward 15 years to perk the nation up in 1897.

IT COUNTS among the more interesting encounters that I've had. But then I would have been disappointed had it not turned out that way. Last year, in the Great Hall of Parliament, I met Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. ''What do you do?'' he asked. When I told him I was a political philosopher, he wanted to know what that actually meant. ''You mean you just sit and think? And you get paid for this?''

Last night, my thoughts turned to Philip. There he was, sitting next to the Queen on the gilded royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, as it floated down the Thames as part of a 1000-boat flotilla. One only wonders what Philip might have been thinking.

Fry wrote: “Has the BBC ever presented a more mind-numbingly tedious programme in its history? ”HRH the queen“ said the first ignorant presenter. HRH?”.

His remarks appeared to resonate among his online followers, prompting a clarification of his comments in a further posting.

“Don't get me wrong peeps, I'm not saying this in relation to ER II's jubilee - just expected better of the beeb. Didn't mean to upset anyone,” he wrote.

One follower responded: “my mate who loves boats is appalled by BBC coverage - sky certainly better and we saw more pageant and less jubilee babies!!”.

Kevin Marsh, a former editor of the Today programme and The World at One, appeared to echo Fry's views.

He wrote: “Am I being over-critical or is the BBC commentary lamentable?”

In a retweet, he added: “Why cut away from Queenie's River Pageant to watch that mindless Tess Daly nonsense... scarcely credible.”

Other social networkers were equally scathing.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/critics-slam-bbcs-inane-diamond-jubilee-coverage-7814668.html

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And to the person who was wondering what Price Philip was thinking about in the post above this one... :

Do you work in a strip club?

The Duke of Edinburgh has been taken to hospital with a bladder infection and will miss the rest of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 90, had been taken to the King Edward VII Hospital in London from Windsor Castle as a "precautionary measure".

The Queen joined 12,000 others at the Jubilee concert at the palace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18325522

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It is well known that when in dire straits, find something to celebrate... Good on the Poms... The firework of their economy tanking can be seen as entertainment above Buckingham Palace... 

Despite claims to the contrary, John Howard plotted, cajoled, manipulated and lied to bring down the Australian Republic in 1999 — and has now received his due reward from the Queen. Managing editor David Donovan gives the definitive account.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/judas-rising/

Composers who were invited by the BBC to take part in its jubilee broadcast have condemned its coverage of the jubilee river pageant after the corporation gave just a few seconds' coverage to the musical orchestration of a poem that the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, had written especially to mark the event.

Duffy's eight-verse poem Common Wealth was put to music by the composer Orlando Gough, one of 13 compositions by 13 composers played on three of the 10 so-called music herald barges that took part.

However, the BBC only gave eight seconds' coverage to Gough's orchestration to music of bagpipes, drums and a choir without even a mention of what it was.

"They obliterated it with some fatuous piece of commentary about something else," Gough said. "I am incensed. It was extraordinary – so much work went into this, we spent hours and hours clearing the rights and negotiating fees and it was reduced to this. It is very, very frustrating, especially when the rest of the coverage was absolutely inane."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/06/jubilee-pageant-composers-bbc-coverage

LONDON: The Duke of Edinburgh has joked about the number of Filipinos working in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) – telling a nurse her country must now be "half-empty", it has been reported.

Prince Philip, who is famed for his off-the-cuff remarks, made the hospital worker from the Philippines laugh with his comment during a visit to open a cardiac centre.

BBC Online reported the Duke as saying to the unnamed woman: "The Philippines must be half-empty – you're all here running the NHS."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/gaffeprone-prince-philip-strikes-again-20130221-2esm2.html#ixzz2LWLtVRiv


Royals would not be complete without an old buffoon, a pregnant princess, a few tits and a frog prince... See toon at top...

Known for his quips and his faux pas, Prince Philip was hard to overlook. But his role as consort required him to stand in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth for much of his adult life. A look back at an extraordinary life.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh has died at the age of 99, Buckingham Palace announced on Friday.

A tweet from the official royal family account confirmed that the prince "passed away peacefully" at Windsor Castle, after having been treated for a preexisting heart condition earlier this year. He was released from the hospital on March 16.

Prince Philip was often described as having old-fashioned charm, but he was equally renowned for his outdated, politically incorrect sense of humor, one that made him somewhat prone to gaffes. He was a throwback to another era, one that valued the stiff upper lip, and no doubt took it in stride when his mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, referred to him as "The Hun" — and not always in jest.

He was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in 1921. It might be hard to imagine nowadays just how controversial his German connections were when he married the young Princess Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey in November 1947, with the trauma of World War II still fresh in England's mind.

Read more:

https://www.dw.com/en/obituary-prince-philip-backbone-of-the-uk-royal-family-dies-at-99/a-57144320

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